An Airplane and a Fly – A Classic Comparison

O mankind! A similitude is coined, So listen to it (carefully). Indeed, those on whom you call besides Allah, Cannot create (even) a fly, Even if they gathered together for that purpose and if the fly took something from them, they could not rescue it from it. So weak are (both) the seeker and the sought! (Al-Quran 22:73)

This single verse of the Qur’an has a great emphasis on Touhid, the Oneness of Allah. Many atheists laugh at this verse citing the example of an airplane. They compare the superiority of man made machine, with a small fly the Qur’an proudly presents as a case study. So let us see if the airplane is really superior in nature and complicated in making and strong in built than the fly.

How much food a fly consumes to keep buzzing for long hours? Science tells us that it can fly for around two hours! Consider its size and match it with the size of its digestive organs. Look at the airplane, how much fuel it needs to keep itself in the air for few hours? If you are a student of mathematics compare the ratio.

If you read the above verse again there is a challenge coined by Allah: If a fly snatches away something from them, they cannot even get it back ! Have you ever thought why? Because the fly does not carry food along with it. How does a fly consume its food? The fly uses an acid that it regurgitates and that acid dissolves the bits of the food, and then it just sucks the dissolved food, through it’s “mouth”. How can you get it back from the fly?

How quickly a fly can take off, if you try to swat it! How much space does it need to take off?

Have you consider the reproductive capacity of a fly? They say: Kill a fly in May and keep thousands away!… A small fly, smaller than most of the spare parts of airplane, has a wonderful reproductive system. The house fly is 6 to 7 mm long Each female fly can lay up to 500 eggs in several batches of 75 to 150 eggs over a three to four day period. Around 10 to 12 generations of flies may occur, annually in temperate regions. Scientists have calculated that a pair of flies beginning reproduction in April may be progenitors, under optimal conditions and if all were to live, of 191,010,000,000,000,000,000 flies by August. Look at the size of a house fly and ponder over its miraculous creation.

Have you ever seen a baby airplane? Or heard that an air plane has gone for a maternity leave? An airplane is no match for a small fly. Therefore Allah ends the verse with an exclamation: How feeble are the callers and how powerless are those whom they call! Then Allah reminds in the next verse : They do not render to Allah the homage due to Him: In fact Allah is the one who is All Powerful, All Mighty….